Eastern Ring Road

The Eastern Ring Road is a proposed Link between the South Arm Highway and the East Derwent Highway, within the greater area of Hobart, Tasmania. The idea behind the proposal is to see a continuous route from South Arm to the Bowen Bridge without the need to travel via the Tasman Highway. The proposal would see Flagstaff Gully Road extended to the north to meet up with the East Derwent Highway. The idea was first investigated in 1995 when Ratio Consultants did a study on the proposed link.cite news|title= Eastern Ring Road Gets High Priority |publisher= The Mercury |accessdate= 2007-05-17] . They considered four options for the link, the most popular choice would connect to the East Derwent Highway between Geilston Bay and Risdon Vale. Ratio concluded constructing any of the options would most likely produce an unacceptable level of visual landscape, ecological, heritage and water quality impacts.
In 2005 during the Clarence City Council elections, Alderman Doug Chipman lobbied the State and Federal governments for the construction of the proposed link road.cite web | year = 2005 | url = http://www.dougchipman.com/images/media_release.pdf | title = Eastern Ring Road For Clarence | publisher = Doug Chipman | accessdate = 2007-05-17] Alderman Chipman also said at the time that While a Flagstaff Gully Link road may not be necessary right now, it probably will be in the next decade and suggested that planning should now be undertaken to ensure that when the road is needed, the government has acquired the land, and anybody developing new properties in the area knows that the road will be built in the future.In 2007 the Clarence City Council backed the proposal to extend the existing Flagstaff Gully Road. The council argue as this new road will be linking 2 state highways, that it should be a state government responsibility, but the state government sees it as an issue for the council.

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